Lakeland Finishes 26th in Cross-County Wrestling Championship

PONTIAC – The 2010 Macomb & Oakland County Wrestling Championships wrapped up Saturday night at the Pontiac Silverdome with finishing 26th out of 100 teams with a total of 55 points.

The tournament was the largest ever of its kind. It was the first year the counties combined the championship and nearly 100 teams competed across 21 mats Friday and Saturday. Thousands of fans went to the Silverdome across the two days to support the wrestlers.

It wasn't without some major hiccups. Many coaches were dissatisfied with the setup of the tournament and the much-hyped crossover championship between the winners of each weight class between Macomb and Oakland counties didn't take place because the tournament ran more than five hours late Saturday.

"It's a huge undertaking," Brother Rice coach Scott Moseley said.

Moseley said part of the problem was a lack of communication between tournament officials and coaches that caused some logistical issues. It didn't help that the computers holding all the Oakland County results crashed Saturday morning and the results had to be re-entered.

None of the struggles seemed to affect the kids wrestling. The competition was fierce across all weight classes and at the end of the day most of the kids who placed stayed through the end of the tournament to receive their medals and get a nice ovation from the Silverdome crowd.